In recent years, a system of collecting in real time current power consumption, accumulated power consumption, etc. of appliances such as a white good and an AV appliance connected to a home network has been realized. Collecting the power consumption and the accumulated power consumption of the appliances in this manner can clearly show to consumers unnecessary power usage in households. Moreover, acquiring the power consumption and the accumulated power consumption of the appliances in real time makes it possible to, for example, control the appliances so as to reduce power consumption.
Known as a conventional technology of data collection is a technology of changing a sampling interval in accordance with a polling interval and a technology of changing a polling interval in accordance with a sampling interval (for example, see Patent Literatures 1 and 2).
Also known as the conventional technology is the one that has a function of switching between transmission and non-transmission depending on a radio communication state (for example, see Patent Literature 3).
Moreover, Patent Literature 4 discloses a technology of changing a burst length in a communication system using a frame structure with a fixed cycle.